Whilst I was among the Naudowessies I observed that they paid uncommon respect to one of their women, and found on enquiry that she was intitled to it on account of a transaction, that in Europe would have rendered her infamous.
They told me that when she was a young woman, for at the time I saw her she was far advanced in life, she had given what they termed a rice feast. According to an ancient but almost obsolete custom (which, as Hamlet says, would have been more honoured in the breach, than the observance) she invited forty of the principal warriors to her tent, where having feasted them with rice and venison, she by turns regaled each of them with a private desert, behind a screen fixed for this purpose in the inner part of the tent.
She had the happiness to obtain by this profusion of courtesy, the favour of her guests, and the approbation of the whole band. So sensible were the young Indians of her extraordinary merit, that they vied with each other for her hand, and in a very short time one of the principal chiefs took her to wife, over whom she acquired great sway, and from whom she received ever after incessant tokens of respect, and love.
It is however scarcely once in an age that any of the females are hardy enough to make this feast, notwithstanding a husband of the first rank awaits as a sure reward the successful giver of it; and the custom, I since find, is peculiar to the Naudowessies.
The Indians in their common state are strangers to all distinction of property, except in the articles of domestic use, which every one considers as his own, and increases as circumstances admit. They are extremely liberal to each other, and supply the deficiency of their friends with any superfluity of their own.
In dangers they readily give assistance to those of their band who stand in need of it, without any expectation of return, except of those just rewards that are always conferred by the Indians on merit. Governed by the plain and equitable laws of nature, every one is rewarded solely according to his deserts; and their equality of condition, manners, and privileges, with that constant and sociable familiarity which prevails throughout every Indian nation, animates them with a pure and truly patriotic spirit, that tends to the general good of the society to which they belong.
If any of their neighbours are bereaved by death or by an enemy of their children, those who are possessed of the greatest number of slaves, supply the deficiency; and these are adopted by them and treated in every respect as if they really were the children of the person to whom they are presented.
The Indians, except those who live adjoining to the European colonies, can form to themselves no idea of the value of money; they consider it, when they are made acquainted with the uses to which it is applied by other nations, as the source of innumerable evils. To it they attribute all the mischiefs that are prevalent among Europeans, such as treachery, plundering, devastations, and murder.
They esteem it irrational that one man should be possessed of a greater quantity than another, and are amazed that any honour should be annexed to the possession of it. But that the want of this useless metal should be the cause of depriving persons of their liberty, and that on account of this partial distribution of it, great numbers should be immured within the dreary walls of a prison, cut off from that society of which they constitute a part, exceeds their belief. Nor do they fail, on hearing this part of the European system of government related, to charge the institutors of it with a total want of humanity, and to brand them with the names of savages and brutes.
They shew almost an equal degree of indifference for the productions of art. When any of these are shewn them, they say, “It is pretty, I like to look at it,” but are not inquisitive about the construction of it, neither can they form proper conceptions of its use. But if you tell them of a person who is able to run with great agility, that is well skilled in hunting, can direct with unerring aim a gun, or bend with ease a bow, that can dexterously work a canoe, understands the art of war, is acquainted with the situation of a country, and can make his way without a guide, through an immense forest, subsisting during this on a small quantity of provisions, they are in raptures; they listen with great attention to the pleasing tale, and bestow the highest commendations on the hero of it.